After the Constitutional Court ruled to suspend Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat while it deliberates whether to disqualify him for holding shares in iTV, a defunct media company, protesters gathered in front of the parliament complex to express anger at the ruling.

Protesters holding signs calling for senators who abstained from voting or did not vote for Pita to resign.

One group of students were seen carrying a banner - “Down with dictatorship. Long live democracy.” Others chanting “Prime Minister Pita” demanded that parliament respect the results of the election and that senators resign.

Activists also lit red and orange smoke flares in front of the gates of parliament to protest Pita’s suspension. They were told by police to stop and warned that they could be breaking public health laws and injuring people allergic to the smoke.

Pom, a 66-year-old, was among the protester. She said she and her friends came to show support for the Move Forward Party during today’s second vote for Prime Minister. She said she supports the Move Forward Party because she wanted to see change so that the younger generation can have better lives. She admitted that she is very angry about what the Senate is doing, saying that she felt as if she were being tricked.

“Why didn’t they just make it clear in the law that senators get to choose the Prime Minister? They wrote the law to trick people into voting,” Pom said.

Pom believes that senators would vote for Pita if they knew right from wrong and respected the people. “If you are wrong, you change your mind. The people want to see the right thing,” she said.

Meanwhile, Job, a 23-year-old, said that he would prefer Pita to become Prime Minister.  He noted that Move Forward won the most seat in the election and Pita was nominated by the 8 government coalition parties.

Although Job  would “be fine” with the coalition nominating someone else, he feels that the Pheu Thai Party will still face challenges in finding more support.  He also said he does not want parties like Bhumjaithai, Phalang Pracharath, or Democrat to join the coalition.

“These parties inherited their power from the coup so I don’t agree. We already won the election. We shouldn’t join with parties that supported the coup,” he said.

The 23-year-old also said he wants the government coalition to to stand by the MOU they signed and continue working to amend the royal defamation law. He hopes they stick together.

Regarding the Constitutional Court decision to suspend Pita, he feels it is unfair because iTV has not been operating as a media provider for a very long time. 

Crowd control police lining up behind the gates to parliament.

A list of cowd control equipment prepared by the police.

During the protest, crowd control police were seen lined up behind the closed gates of parliament.  Reporters were also circulating pictures of a list of crowd control equipment prepared by the police, including tear gas, taser, rubber bullets, and a long-range acoustic device (LRAD).